| Chameleon Events

The 2nd UK Industrial Water & Infrastructure Security Summit brings together senior leaders from across government, regulators, water companies, industry, infrastructure, energy, investment and technology to address one of the UK’s increasingly critical challenges: securing the water infrastructure needed to support future industrial growth and national resilience.

As the UK accelerates industrial decarbonisation, the demand for secure, sustainable and resilient water infrastructure is growing. Hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuel, data centres, advanced manufacturing and other emerging industries are creating new demands on water resources, while climate change, population growth, environmental pressures and ageing infrastructure are placing additional strain on the system.

Building on the success of the inaugural summit, this year's event will examine how the UK can strengthen water security, deliver the infrastructure required for industrial growth and develop more resilient approaches to managing future demand.

The summit will provide a unique platform for government, regulators, utilities, industrial operators, infrastructure developers, investors, academics and solution providers to share insight, explore emerging opportunities and address the practical challenges facing the sector.

Key discussions will include industrial water demand and infrastructure capacity, water security and resilience, environmental permitting and planning, industrial decarbonisation, emerging water technologies, regional infrastructure requirements and investment models for delivering the next generation of water infrastructure. With senior speakers, expert panel discussions and dedicated networking opportunities, the 2nd UK Industrial Water & Infrastructure Security Summit offers an important opportunity to connect with the organisations shaping the future of the UK's water and industrial infrastructure landscape.

Sessions One and Two

AMP8 is now being reinforced by Ofwat's 2026 cost-change process, with draft allowances for asset health, growth, PFAS treatment, major-project development and gated schemes. Against live drought conditions and regulatory transition, this keynote session will test whether funding is becoming accountable delivery, how planning and supply-chain constraints are being resolved, and what industrial users need from the water settlement through PR29.

Schedule:

9:30
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
The UK Water Settlement in Transition: Cost-Change Decisions, Regulatory Reform and the Road to PR29
An opening assessment of AMP8 delivery, Ofwat's 2026 cost-change decisions, the transition to an integrated regulator and the implications for water companies, industrial customers, investors and the supply chain.
9:50
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
From Allowances to Assets: Delivering the AMP8 and Cost-Change Pipeline
How new allowances, price-control deliverables and clawback protections translate into planning, procurement and construction, and how stronger coordination can bring supply and treatment capacity online sooner.
10:10
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Water as Industrial Strategy: Forecasting Demand Before It Becomes a Constraint
Why cumulative demand, environmental capacity and development timing must be assessed at regional scale, and what government, regulators and industry need to do to make water availability visible early enough to shape investment decisions.
10:30
40-MINUTE LEADERSHIP PANEL
Can the UK Convert Record Water Investment into Growth and Resilience?
A cross-sector discussion on cost-change funding, AMP8 delivery, drought resilience, regulatory transition and the practical steps required to turn approved investment into assets that enable UK industrial growth.

Water Reform, Industrial Demand and Regional Delivery Low-carbon projects cannot treat water as a late-stage utility connection. This session will examine process water, cooling, feedwater quality, wastewater and compliant discharge across carbon capture, hydrogen and sustainable aviation fuel projects. It will show how a credible water balance, alternative supply assessment and treatment strategy should be embedded in site selection, FEED and investment decisions.

Schedule:

11:40
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Water for CCUS and Hydrogen: Quantifying Demand at the Start of FEED
A practical view of process and cooling-water demand, water quality, electrolyser requirements, capture-system impacts, seasonal resilience and the data developers must share with utilities and regulators.
12:00
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Water for SAF and Low-Carbon Fuels: Reuse, Treatment and Discharge by Design
How project design can reduce potable-water dependence, use recycled or lower-grade sources, manage complex effluent streams and build a permittable discharge strategy before final investment approval.
12:20
40-MINUTE PANEL DISCUSSION
Can Low-Carbon Projects Reach FID Without a Bankable Water Strategy?
Developers, utilities, regulators and engineering partners will test whether current planning processes provide enough certainty on volume, quality, cost, permitting and delivery timescales to support investment.

Sessions Three and Four

Water Reform, Industrial Demand and Regional Delivery Industrial growth needs reliable water, but it does not always need drinking-water quality. With drought risk rising and scarcity-reflective wholesale charging due from April 2027, this session will compare potable supply, abstraction, treated final effluent, dedicated non-potable networks and desalination. It will focus on matching quality to use and turning alternative sources into dependable, investable industrial supply.

Schedule:

14:14
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Treated Final Effluent as a Strategic Industrial Water Resource
The technical and commercial pathway from wastewater treatment works to industrial user, including polishing, transfer, environmental safeguards, monitoring, permitting and the conditions that make reuse schemes viable.
14:20
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Beyond Potable Supply: Desalination, Non-Potable Networks and Scarcity-Reflective Water
Where desalination, raw water, recycled water and dedicated industrial networks can supplement public supply, and how scarcity pricing, energy use, residuals, quality standards and long-term operating costs should be assessed.
14:40
40-MINUTE PANEL DISCUSSION
What Will Make Large-Scale Industrial Water Reuse Deliverable and Bankable?
A delivery-focused debate on the regulatory pathway, evidence standards, environmental protection, infrastructure ownership, pricing and risk allocation required to move reuse from bespoke pilots to a mainstream option.

Water Reform, Industrial Demand and Regional Delivery Water, wastewater, power, land, transport, fibre and environmental capacity are still too often planned separately. Building on the Water White Paper and the 2026 drought, this session will examine how regional planning can combine housing, industrial, energy and digital demand, identify deliverable locations and turn shared evidence into resilient infrastructure programmes.

Schedule:

15:50
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Mapping the Regional Demand Stack: Water for Industry, Energy, Housing and Digital Growth
How spatial demand forecasting can combine confirmed projects, development scenarios and cumulative environmental limits to identify priority infrastructure, viable sites and future constraints.
16:10
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
One-System Planning in Practice: Joining Water, Wastewater, Power, Land, Transport and Fibre
A regional case study showing how shared data, common assumptions and coordinated utility planning can move infrastructure decisions from reactive connections to proactive growth enablement.
16:30
40-MINUTE PANEL DISCUSSION
Who Owns the Regional Water Plan Under the New Regulatory Model?
Cluster organisations, utilities, planners, regulators and industrial users will examine who convenes the process, owns the demand evidence, manages drought scenarios and turns regional priorities into funded projects.

Sessions One and Two

Emerging Growth, Investment and Circular Water The next wave of industrial demand will be shaped by high-density compute, AI infrastructure, advanced manufacturing and new nuclear generation. With data-centre demand still missing from key national forecasts and a live Ofwat case for shared supply infrastructure, this keynote session will examine cooling choices, disclosure, drought resilience, developer contributions and integrated water, power and planning decisions.

Schedule:

9:05
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
The Missing Demand Forecast: AI Growth Zones, Advanced Manufacturing and Clean Power
A national outlook on the water demand missing from current growth forecasts, how AI growth zones and clean power could reshape the demand map, and why water capacity must be considered alongside power and land.
9:25
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Cooling the AI Economy: Data Centre Water Strategy, Technology and Heat Recovery
Comparing cooling technologies, water-use efficiency, liquid cooling, alternative water sources and heat-recovery opportunities for increasingly dense data-centre campuses.
9:45
20-MINUTE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Water for Advanced Nuclear and SMRs: Cooling, Co-Location and Multi-Utility Infrastructure
How cooling technology, siting, abstraction, discharge and co-location with hydrogen, heat networks or industrial users could influence the water requirements and deliverability of advanced nuclear projects.
10:05
40-MINUTE LEADERSHIP PANEL
Should Water Capacity and Drought Risk Determine Where Data Centres and SMRs Are Built?
Developers, utilities, planners and environmental specialists will explore whether water capacity, drought risk and credible demand disclosure should become formal site-selection and planning tests for major digital and energy infrastructure.

Emerging Growth, Investment and Circular Water Ofwat's 2026 cost-change decisions sharpen the boundary between shared strategic network assets and site-specific or dedicated non-potable infrastructure funded by developers. This session will examine regulated allowances, third-party delivery, private networks, industrial co-investment and public-private capital, with a focus on revenue certainty, ownership and stranded-asset protection.

Schedule:

11:15
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Who Pays for Growth? Cost-Change Allowances, Developer Contributions and Private Capital
A comparison of funding routes for shared network capacity, dedicated industrial systems and site-specific connections, including where cost-change allowances apply and where developers or private capital must contribute.
11:35
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Making Shared Infrastructure Bankable: Ownership, Offtake and Risk Allocation
How long-term supply agreements, minimum-volume commitments, connection charges, asset ownership and construction or demand risk can be structured across utilities, developers, investors and industrial users.
11:55
40-MINUTE PANEL DISCUSSION
How Do We Finance Growth Without Transferring Stranded-Asset Risk to Customers?
Investors, utilities, government and industrial customers will test how strategic benefits, developer contributions, commitment milestones and clawback protections can attract capital without transferring inappropriate risk to household customers.

Sessions Three and Four

Emerging Growth, Investment and Circular Water Wastewater infrastructure must support growth while meeting tighter environmental expectations. This session will examine AMP8 upgrades, network capacity, industrial pre-treatment and the new funding focus on PFAS and advanced treatment. It will also explore reuse and recovery of water, heat, energy and materials while protecting receiving waters.

Schedule:

13:35
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
AMP8 Wastewater Upgrades: Creating Capacity for Growth While Raising Environmental Performance
How investment in networks and treatment works can improve compliance, reduce pollution and support new industrial connections, while managing catchment limits, phosphorus, storm flows and future treatment requirements.
13:55
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
PFAS and Advanced Treatment: Membranes, Oxidation, ZLD and Resource Recovery
A deployment review covering PFAS, membrane systems, advanced oxidation, zero-liquid-discharge approaches, monitoring and recovery of usable water, heat, energy and materials from complex industrial streams.
14:15
40-MINUTE PANEL DISCUSSION
Can Wastewater Become a Strategic Resource Rather Than a Disposal Problem?
Utilities, industrial operators, regulators and technology providers will consider how capacity, quality, permitting and commercial incentives can support a more circular water system without weakening environmental safeguards.

Emerging Growth, Investment and Circular Water The summit will close with a delivery-led pipeline session grounded in the latest awards: Anglian Water's £1.5bn major-projects framework and £450m coastal first wave, Thames Water's treatment-site upgrades with Costain, and the wider cost-change pipeline. It will identify procurement routes, supply-chain openings and the measures that show awards are becoming assets.

Schedule:

15:25
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
The 2027 Project Pipeline: What Is Funded, Awarded and Ready to Procure?
A practical overview of near-term supply, wastewater, reuse and treatment opportunities, including cost-change schemes, Anglian Water's major-project awards and the decisions that will shape procurement and delivery.
15:45
20-MINUTE PRESENTATION
Commercial Delivery Models: Tier 1 JVs, ECI, Open-Book Contracts and Digital Operations
How major-project frameworks, early contractor involvement, NEC4 open-book delivery, gainshare and digital operations can improve constructability, supply-chain access, cost control and whole-life performance.
16:05
40-MINUTE CLOSING PANEL
From Awards to Assets: What Must Be Delivered Before 2028?
A commitment-led closing discussion focused on converting framework awards and allowances into projects, opening routes for specialist suppliers and agreeing measurable delivery milestones for the next 12 to 24 months.

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The 2nd UK Industrial Water & Infrastructure Security Summit

Agenda

Sessions One and Two

Water Reform, Industrial Demand and Regional Delivery

Schedule:

Water for CCUS, Hydrogen and SAF: Designing Water Into FEED and FID

Schedule:

Sessions Three and Four

The Right Water for the Right Purpose: Reuse, Non-Potable Supply, Desalination and Scarcity

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One System, One Plan: Regional Water Planning for Industrial Growth and Drought Resilience

Schedule:

Sessions One and Two

The Next Industrial Water Challenge: Data Centres, AI and Advanced Nuclear

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Financing Growth: Cost-Change Funding, Third-Party Contributions and Private Capital

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Sessions Three and Four

Closing the Loop: Wastewater Capacity, PFAS, Industrial Effluent and Resource Recovery

Schedule:

From Awards to Assets: The UK Industrial Water Delivery and Procurement Pipeline

Schedule:

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Agenda

Sessions One and Two

Sessions Three and Four

Sessions One and Two

Sessions Three and Four

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